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Lesson’s Learned from the Election of 2006

Newspaper reports concerning the root cause of the election of Virginia’s new Senator appear to be a simplistic explanation of what was a much more complex choice. I am the moderate voter who delivered the Senate into the hands of a different party. My vote was in no way a validation of one particular issue. My vote was, instead, a resounding “Yes” for a candidate who doesn’t come along very often. This was a man who might just be an elected official who placed the good of his constituents over misplaced party loyalty. And he has turned out to be exactly the Senator I envisioned in my dreams.

My vote against the incumbent was a “No” to his lock-step march with party leadership. It was a vote against huge tax credits for big business, pork-barrel spending, big government, rewarding incompetence, no-bid contracts, the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill, Hurricane Katrina failures, ignoring the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, illegal wiretapping of American citizens, out of control lobbyists, and government corruption.

My vote was in favor of a return to the United States envisioned and conceived by our founding fathers. It was a vote in favor of rejoining the international community. It was a repudiation of arrogance and deceit.

Letters sent to our previous Senator received responses that were not polite replies indicating that my opinion would be taken into consideration. The responses were, instead, long missile espousing his party’s talking points. Government shouldn’t work in that manner. An elected official who behaves as such will surely be defeated.

The philosophies espoused by our Founding Fathers are still as valid today as they were in the 18th century. When wage earners are penalized with a heavier tax burden than they can bear our entire economy will be placed in jeopardy. Can it ever be considered ethical to take hard earned dollars from the ordinary citizen to reward a greedy corporate elite? Our glorious republic was founded as an exciting experiment in democracy when similar taxes were imposed in favor of the crown.

Elected officials must listen to the voters who entrust government to their care. Otherwise, come November, the offending parties may join the unemployment rolls.